ISLAMABAD: Local manufacturers on Thursday expressed concerns over cheap imports — mainly from China — rendering many Pakistani industries out of business while anti-dumping cases are not being processed as the National Tariff Commission (NTC) has been non-functional since 2009.

A meeting of local manufacturers – held under the aegis of Organisation for Advancement and Safeguard of Industrial Sector (Oasis) – belonging to various sectors decided to form an alliance of all the industries whose cases were pending at the NTC and urge for speedy processing of dumping cases.

The participants suggested the government to appoint commission members without any delay as domestic industries were facing huge losses due to cheap imports flooding local markets.

The stake holders belonging to many sectors including synthetic fibre, ceramics, steel industry, textile, ceramics, porcelain tiles, paper and paper board, food, steel and chemicals.

A participant, Atif Iqbal, said Pakistan should not repeat the case of leather shoes as the whole sector has been abolished from the country due to cheap imports.

“We are following the same footsteps again. Several well established sectors including ceramics, polyester fibre, etc have surplus production capacity in the country but imports are cheaper because the cost of doing business is high in Pakistan,” Mr Iqbal said.

It was demanded that the government should protect local industries by increasing import duties on products that are manufactured locally. Oasis Coordinator Azeem Daniyal said some leading units have demanded the government to redress their issues related to cheap imports.

The meeting was informed that Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan had recently announced the government was in the process of completing the NTC by appointing new members and the commission is expected to be operational by October 1, 2016.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2016